Things move quickly around here. So quickly, that it’s been a few months since Cam and I went to Madagascar and he first posted about getting there. I made it a day or two behind Cam, after missing my first flight. Taking the trip on my own kept things interesting! I found myself texting Cam from the tiny port of Ankify, desperately hoping that he’d find me. I haven’t had many happier reunions.

Here are a few different clips from our trip. I’m starting with my favorite. It showcases my pro pod-opening skills.

Cam was not a pro.

Truthfully, neither of us was really that good.

After the pods are opened, the workers pull the beans from the pods.

At SOMIA, we watched a worker move the beans between fermentation boxes.

After fermentation, the beans are raked into an even layer and dried in the sun.

At Millot, workers hand sort the broken beans and junk from the good beans.

We also saw beans being washed. This gives them a cleaner appearance for later enrobing.

This video shows the beans emptying from the washer. It also shows how our stomachs felt at the time…

Millot’s distillery smelled amazing. They distill lemongrass, ylang ylang, and a few other essential oils. I wish we had smell-o-vision.

That’s just a taste of my stories from Madagascar. The lemur pictures are still to come.

[…] starting from working closely with bean farmers. In fact, Alice had just recently returned from a trip to the farm in Madagascar where they get the beans for their single-origin Madagascar bars. Alice opening pods like a pro […]

[…] the SOMIA farm in Madagascar. We’ve always loved the flavor of Madagascar cacao and after Alice and I visited the farm last year, we knew we wanted to get a lot more of it and get it as direct as possible. We had to figure out a […]

[…] bar is our current favorite. The beans come from the Akesson farm in Madagascar that Cam and Alice visited at the end of last year. When tasting, after a few seconds of a mellow chocolate flavor, you […]